12 May 2017

Residents of Tlokweng will tomorrow (May 13) cast their votes to determine their next Member of Parliament.

The elections which follow the demise of the late Ms Same Bathobakae in November last year will have two men and one woman tussling for the ticket to parliament.

The candidates are Ms Shirley Segokgo who is an independent candidate, Mr Elijah Katse of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and Mr Kenneth Segokgo of Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) .

During the previous general election, a total of 11 525 people voted against a total of 13 980 who had registered to vote in the constituency.

The UDC had assigned Ms Bathobakae who won with 6 442, followed by BDP’s Mr Olebile Gaborone with 38 67 voters and Botswana Congress Party’s Mr Phaladi Zachariah with 1 195 voters.

There were no independent candidate by then and none of all those who contested the previous elections will have a second bite at the cherry on May 13.

And after a spirited campaign, dust will certainly settle to pave way for the voters to decide who to crown.

In his campaign trail, Mr Katse highlighted that Tlokweng residents complained of shortage of land, lack of storm water reticulation systems, unserviced roads and lack of sporting facilities, which he too would prioritise.

Furthermore, he told BOPA that the village had grown and it needed a senior secondary school and library, adding that most of the projects were at once in the district development plans but had not been implemented due to “weak representation.”

Mr Katse further promised to use his skills to empower young people with business skills and nurture them to take advantage of government development programmes.

He further pledged to ensure that the needs of the constituency were addressed and he promised to develop a working relationship with other stakeholders in the area.

In advancing his agenda, UDC’s, Mr Segokgo told BOPA that Batlokwa needed land for residential, farming and commercial purposes, which he promised to raise in parliament.

He said he would advocate for a legal repossessions of unused land surrounding Tlokweng, adding that the practise had been done elsewhere in the country.

A former teacher, Mr Segokgo also said he would advocate for the review of the Revised National Policy on Education and also advocate for education with production.

Mr Segokgo further said he would advocate for job creation through economic diversification, “fight against corruption and misrule” as well as fighting for improved conditions of the working class.

An independent candidate, Ms Segokgo said bureaucracy inherent in political parties would not enable her competitors to do much.

Ms Segokgo who is a former Specially Elected Member of Parliament promised to provide a platform for community empowerment.

She promised to tackle youth unemployment adding that there was need to come up with new ideas to address problems faced by young people.

Ms Segokgo whose campaign has been rooted much on social media said young people needed to be empowered to be self-reliant and added that she was better placed to articulate solution to land shortage in Tlokweng, having served in the Tlokweng Land Board. ENDS